Texas is home to a handful of exotic animal auction houses: part of the robust exotic animal trade in the United States. Exotic animals in Texas—including, but not limited to, monkeys and primates who don’t fall under the state’s dangerous wild animal laws—are in a sort of legal blind spot. According to Born Free USA, “Roadside zoos and private individuals across the state imprison dangerous wild animals in appalling conditions that meet neither federal nor state regulations. These facilities get away with such conditions due to a fatal combination of poor federal enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and ineffective state oversight.”
Link: The Texas Observer